Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and federal Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey will help Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead co-chair a sage grouse task force, Mead announced Friday. The task force will review ways states can provide sage grouse management tools and habitat protections. As means of potentially avoiding the need to list sage grouse under the federal Endangered Species Act, the task force was created in December following a meeting in Wyoming among U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and officials from 10 states that have habitat for the greater sage grouse, a large, ground-dwelling bird that lives at elevations of 4,000 to 9,000 feet (see Daily GPI, Jan. 11). In 2009 Wyoming instituted a “Sage-Ground Core Area Protection” program. Mead has continued the push for state-led actions.

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